Well it is time to pay the piper. I epically failed at my self-imposed challenge of going thirty days without using aluminum cans.
So here is what happened. We got a soda stream and I can’t say enough good things about this contraption. I love a good glass of sparkling water and the soda stream came through for me. The first two weeks were great. I drank the soda stream water and we filled our growler a couple of times at Half Acre and at Metropolitan. (Both excellent breweries if you haven’t been yet!)
Now here is where it all went south. We hosted a birthday party for my daughter’s fourth birthday about two weeks into the challenge. We invited about 60 people over to our house. I knew we couldn’t make enough sparkling water in the soda stream for everyone so I (sigh) bought some La Croix at Costco. Now the day of the birthday party I didn’t drink one but the days following I weakly helped myself to the deliciousness that is La Croix.
If the La Croix slip up been my only failure, I don’t think I could classify it as epic. But fast forward to a few days later to my friend Ryan’s birthday at the Cubs’ game and I managed to drink a couple of cans of Bud Light without even thinking about it. (Palm to face)
Where does that leave my challenge? One of my favorite quotes says ‘we don’t need a handful of people doing zero waste perfectly. We need millions of people doing it imperfectly.’ For two weeks, I did a very good job avoiding aluminum cans. If we can all be a little more mindful about things like aluminum can usage we are heading in the right direction. We can’t change overnight but making these small changes is progress. (Plus, I recycled all of my shame-filled La Croix cans. So there’s that…)
Starting tomorrow, I am going to give thirty days without cans another try! Who is with me?
Author: Courtney Bellmann